I suppose the Aaron Williams signing warrants some attention, if only because it looks like Zeke Rebraca is on his last legs and Tim Thomas, even at 6'10", isn't really a true post player. So that leaves Williams as the Clips' only backup on the low block.

Williams is a product of Xavier, a program that has traditionally produced blue-collar bangers such as Tyrone Hill and Brian Grant. He'll be 35 the week Clippers land in Moscow to prepare for BC Khimki on October 5. His best two years were with the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 Nets, the latter of which advanced to the NBA finals. He'd been sandbagged on the Toronto bench until the Hornets liberated him last season and he immediately began logging over 20 minutes a game for NOK, averaging 5.8 ppg/4.9 rpg and shooting 51.6% from the field. He doesn't turn the ball over and is a career .738 shooting from the stripe.

The book on Williams is that he's a solid interior defender, which will make him indispensable alongside Kaman who still has trouble knocking guys off the block. Offensively, he can set a screen and grab/claw with the best of them, but won't take a contested shot in the open floor. I suspect that Williams won't log more than 12 mpg, if that - barring injury, of course. But it seems like a nice pickup for a team whose frontcourt depth was looking a little iffy going into the season.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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Comments

Well, that's more minutes than I was expecting you to predict. But its true that we needed some additional depth at the 5. It just seems iffy to try and replace a guy who's on his last legs with a guy who's also on his last legs.

My sense is that Davis will start the season in the D-League. (1) Cassell (2) Mobley (3) Livinston (4) Ewing (5) Maggette (6) Ross (7) Brand (8) Thomas (9) Kaman (10) Williams (11) Rebraca (12) Singleton ... and this doesn't include Korolev, whom the organization likes a lot -- a number 12 pick to Davis, a second rounder. The D-League was created specifically for projects like Davis. I could be completely wrong. And it's entirely likely that once Rebraca goes down [and he will], Davis will be called up. But I still believe he'll start the season in Anaheim

Aaron Williams will help teach toughness to guys like Chris Kaman and Paul Davis. I look at him as more like a coach to the younger players than anything else. Clippers needed a guy like Aaron Williams to hit the floor (a la, Kurt Rambis, Eduardo Najera, etc.), and they couldn't go after Reggie Evans, because, well, you know why they couldn't go after Reggie Evans.

The main value of Williams is buying time for Elton decided games. I doubt he will get much if any time in important/playoff games, but he will help reduce Elton's minutes over the course of the long season.

Long time reader, first time poster. I don't know if you've discussed this topic yet, but what's the deal with the clips overpaying serbian centers? They did this with Stojko Vrankovic (around $3.5m/year in the late 90s) and Rebraca (around $6.5 for 2 years). Everyone knew Rebraca has med issues and I seriously doubt there were 3rd-parties that were willing to fork over that much cheese to this guy. Does upper management have some sort of agreement with the governement of Serbia-Montenegro?

Now that we've got another backup center, I don't see a use for Boniface N'Dong. I say se cut him for Jawad Williams or Kareem Rush or someone more versitile that can play all over. Five centers on a roster is rediculous!

I can tell you something about that guy: he's just a massive muscle machine. I was standing around the Net practice facility once a few years ago, probably waiting to have Jason Kidd repeat jock platitudes for the umpteenth time, when Aaron walked out of the weight room, all pumped up as hell and shiny with sweat. Everyone around just stopped talking, like you would if a Brahma Bull walked by. I know we all thought the same thing. Whoa. Don't f*&! with that guy.

Rudy Gay certainly has a lot of upside, but the Memphis trade seems crazy to me. Shane Battier (a six pick) has done nothing but play hard and contribute every night for four years and now he's being traded for a number eight pick?! Okay, I'm Duke biased, but still.

04/11/08 18:26:53

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